I have not read the book, because, by the way, there is a book with the same name. I thought it would be a good title today because it seems like there some bad signs. In fact, the two signs came in the way of birds.

The first of the signs was the two dead birds I saw. There were two dead birds. The first of them I came across when I was walking home just yesterday. A small brownish bird was on the sidewalk. I wasn't sure whether it was too injured to move or make noise, or if it was dead, so I picked up a fallen pine needle from a tree and poked the bird. It didn't move. I figured it was dead and decided to take a photo of it, because I didn't expect to come across another dead bird anytime soon. Anyhow, as I was going to walk home to get my camera and take a better picture, another person walked by, but he didn't notice the bird - or maybe he did and didn't care, because he stepped on it. I could hardly keep from gasping. Such ill treatment of the dead! I doubt anyone will appreciate being treated like that when they're dead.

And then I saw another bird. When I was going to my classroom I heard some students mention a dead bird. I looked around until I saw it...Another brown bird, but a bigger one than the one I saw before, was lying on the blacktop. I was starting to get spooked. I mean, it's not everyday that you see two dead birds in a row. I walked home today and saw that the first dead bird was still there. It had gotten kicked into the bushes at the side of the sidewalk by some careless pedestrian. I hope that when I'm dead no one will simply leave me half-buried in dirt to rot.

Looking at the pavilion, a place at my school which contains classrooms on the outside and a tall structure (built for shade, I guess?) in the inside, I noticed there were many crows there. It's not unusual to see crows or seagulls, but it is unusual to see many at the same place. There were maybe eight of them there. This is a confusing sign because eight crows means heaven. Maybe I didn't see some of them or I was just counting in a rush. I keep wondering if something bad is going to happen what with all these weird signs. (Perhaps they're just coincidences, but it's much more interesting to dramatize it...) Wait! This means someone is going to die soon and go to heaven! Oh no! (I mean, it's good for you to go to heaven, but it's bad to die, at least in my opinion. Unless you've lived a long and fulfilling life and you have decided you can leave peacefully.)

Because crows and ravens have some similarities, I would often get them mixed up. I remember I have heard a prophecy about the Tower of London in England. If the ravens leave the tower, then London will fall, or something like that. Anyhow, no ravens = bad things happen, to say it more simply. That's why they clip the wings of the ravens, so they can't fly. Anyhow, seeing those crows reminded me of the ravens since I imagined that maybe the ravens escaped and came to my school. (But that's really far-fetched, what with how far England is from California.)

Labels: bad news, birds, crows, death, england, heaven, omen, ravens, rudeness, something wicked this way comes, superstition, tower of london

(NOTE: DON'T TAKE IT TOO SERIOUSLY. I HAVE CHANGED THE NAMES FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR PRIVACY)

Once upon a time, in a far away land called Australia, lived a man named Peter Pan, and a lady named...uh...Untitled. (Because I don't know her name) They lived in a grand house called Versailles. (Okay, so I haven't been there and I wouldn't know what it looks like. But bear with me.) It was glorious, with statues of angels, a maze made entirely out of rectangular green shrubs, many balconies, and even the occasional rubber chicken.

But Peter Pan had a dastardly, devilish, selfish, wicked, oh-so-horrible secret: He had more than one wife. In fact, in another faraway land called China (otherwise known as "Cathay") he had other wives. (Well, he's either divorced from them or was not "officially" married) And he had children that contained genes from the other wives. Untitled had no idea about this, so she skipping along, making daisy chains and singing American Idol karaoke.

And then a most dreadful event happened to Peter Pan and Untitled. Peter Pan did business for a living, and when he had profited he had made enough cash to purchase a house such as Versailles. Now, though, his business had failed and he had lost so much money he was forced to sell his precious Versailles. Untitled still stuck with Peter Pan despite the fact that they would now be moving to a more ordinary apartment.

I believe Peter Pan to be a weak-minded sort of person. Because of this misfortune, Peter Pan was sinking into depression, and he had thoughts of committing suicide. If he had done so, what would have happened to his wives and his children? Terribly unthoughtful of him to just think of himself and not his family. (Well, maybe he did think of his family but I don't know how to read minds, so...) And thus ends the tale of Peter Pan, Untitled, and the house called Versailles.

Actually, there is someone who lived in a neighborhood called Doublebay in Sydney, Australia, but I really shouldn't say any more than that for privacy's sake. I mean I've already probably destroyed people's relationships just by putting this up. So just consider my story of Peter Pan and Untitled as fiction, like it's meant to be. Hehehehe.

I was meaning to post this a lot earlier but recently my Internet is not reliable. It might last for, say, fifteen minutes before it gets ruined and then I have to unplug my router and wait a few minutes, then plug it back in and hopefully it'll work then. It's a real hassle so we might have to get a new router...We took out of one of our old routers so now it's working smoothly, and I was able to post this.

Labels: australia, bad news, business, children, china, depression, house, internet, money, peter pan, polygamy, problem, responsibility, rich, secret, story, suicide, untitled, versailles, wife

There was a similar quote to this, said by Ronald Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev. But I have adjusted it to suit my purposes. Recently, I heard the shocking news that the Calabazas branch of the San Jose Library is coming down. I don't even know if they plan to set up a "temporary library" in the meantime, since it was said on their website that we ought to go visit other branches. I guess my mom could just to go Alviso (a San Jose Library not far from her office) but I still find this to be terrible. I still remember a long time ago the old Cupertino library was going to be replaced by our current one, and they set up a temporary library. Maybe San Jose doesn't have as much money. When I was young, I would ride my bike with training wheels around the rectangular path...

But anyways, before I get caught up in the past (which happens often if I have free time), at least the Cupertino library is still here. I will probably have to rely on it for all my books from now on. I am pleased to see that they have their fountains up and running again. When it was newer, the fountains had been up a lot, but then for a long time I didn't see them anymore. But now it's back, and they took down that ugly fence they temporarily set up around it. Even if it does seem like a "waste of water", I like fountains. It'd be really cool if they had ones like the Bellagio fountains.

Speaking of fountains, I saw some indoors at the Crowne Casino in Melbourne, Australia. Inside were structures which water ran down and also jumped to and fro (bad grammar sentence, sorry). It sort of reminded me of Bellagio's fountains, even those these ones were quite different. (Well, maybe these are more like the ones you find in the indoor "garden" in Bellagio) Too bad we didn't stay at the Crowne's hotel... I bet my dad and his pals would have gambled away the money, and besides, unlike Las Vegas, you have to prove you're old enough to go into the casinos (in Las Vegas, it's just that people will catch you trying to use the machines if you look too young).

The STAR test results have arrived! At least, I received mine in the mail recently. I was pleased with my results this year. My math and language arts scores were pretty even. I won't say the specifics, but language arts has gone up a huge amount, so I'm glad! My math score went down, but then again, that probably is because I'm taking the advanced math STAR tests now, not the regular ones like last year and the years before. I hope I can do as well next year when it comes to the science and history sections... If I can, I think I'm set for life (nah, I know I shouldn't have that lazy attitude or I won't be going anywhere).

We bought a timer recently. Usually we use the digital sorts of cameras, so it was a little awkward having to use one of the mechanical white ones. But I think it is much cuter than getting one of those ones with the numbers on it.

Labels: bad news, bellagio, crowne, fountain, gambling, good news, las vegas, library, mechanical, mikhail gorbachev, repair, result, ronald reagan, score, STAR testing, tear down this wall, timer

My trip to Australia was pretty good overall (because I like Australia as a place), but there was a string of bad things, as well.

- I became carsick a lot. Apparently BMW sports cars tend to be fast overall so if you're driving on a winding road, it's easy to feel carsick. And sometimes you end up with a reckless driver, for instance, Andrew. Sure, he drives alright, but he tends not to drive within the speed limit. I heard he got so many tickets for speeding that eventually he was told that he can either not drive for a while (three months?) or he has to stay within the speed limit. So he set this thing on his car which makes a noise whenever he drives over 60 km/h. But even then I wonder if he notices it. (No offense to him if he does notice it.)

- We went on a tour of the Sydney Opera House - my family, David, Michael, Meggie, and Andrew. My dad used to live in the suburbs of Sydney, but he never went inside the opera house (back then you needed to see one of the shows to get in...My mom muttered to me that he was a cheapskate and they never spent much money on her). My mom had already called Lily, who works for a travel agency, to book English tours for us. The English tour is longer than the Mandarin tour, and anyhow I can't understand much Mandarin, so it would be pointless for me to take the Mandarin tour. But then Gary, my dad's friend, called Lily. First he said he was Meggie's friend (which confused Lily, who didn't know who Meggie was at that point) and then Gary insisted on having Mandarin tours instead of English. Luckily, it got changed in time for us to take the English tour.

- My camera broke. Aaaaah! This is probably one of the worst, if not the worst. I have a Nikon Coolpix camera which I've been using for quite some time. So it's dear to me... (I have a strange attachment to objects which I've had by my side) It broke while I was in Cairns, having ridden the Rainforest SkyRail (it's like one of those lift things, which are either amusement park rides or used for skiers...) to get to a place where they have animals, like butterflies, koalas, wallabies, and reptiles. Anyhow, maybe I was swinging the camera too much, or it was just really bad luck, because when I tried to turn on the camera, it would say there was a Lens Error and you couldn't turn it off unless you took the camera battery out... I really don't want to buy a new camera (I don't know how to fix it, and I heard getting someone to fix it for me would cost even more) because of the money and also because I'd miss this camera. My parents insist they could buy the same kind of camera, but that seems pointless to me. If you have camera knowledge, please give me some tips here!

- My mom's wristwatch broke. The strap came apart and we can't seem to put it together again (it still tells time, but now since you can't wear it, it's just like a clock). So now she had to switch watches. She figures she's probably going to try and buy a new one - she wants that is durable and which doesn't need its batteries replaced (like a watch which has a solar battery, which is what she was using, or one that you can wind up every day. Omega watches are the wind-up kind, but Omega watches are pricey... So my mom wouldn't want to use that to wash dishes and do laundry and things like that, and people could steal it, if you know what I mean).

There's more, but I'll continue it in a further post... (I suppose that's more than three bad things, huh?)

Labels: australia, bad news, broken, camera, carsick, drivers, english, mandarin, mixup, opera house, speeding, sydney, tour, watch

When I went to blogger this morning I noticed it said I had 100 posts now. That's quite the milestone. It took longer than I thought because I don't post everyday anymore, but I'm glad to have gotten there anyhow. Though some people always say "Quality, not quantity" I'll try my best to achieve both.

Anyhow, I think I've already hit rock bottom. Maybe things can get better from now on. I stapled the map page from my history test in the front instead of the back, so I lost 5 points off my test, which otherwise would've been perfect. Also, I missed a bonus run in PE (if you run/jog the whole time, you can get credit for it or something) because I still hadn't recovered completely. Oh well. My foot should be better by the time we run our next mile. I hope I won't be too tired by then. (It seems like I have bad luck with both of the "Blairs" at the moment.)

Well, at least we watched an interesting Youtube video in class. Two criminals ran away from the court. They were handcuffed together and got peppersprayed so they couldn't see all that well. They weren't so bright, and ran on the opposite sides of a lamppost, causing them to crash together and get caught by the police again. Apparently a year has been added to their sentence. (I don't know what the original offense was, so please find out yourself.)

My neck is really itchy. That's strange since usually that only happens in the summer, because it is hot and dry. But I guess it happens in the winter because it's cold and dry. It makes it worse that I'm wearing a sweater, which my mom wanted me to try. I always wear jackets or no outerwear at all. (Of course I wear clothes. But that doesn't really count as outerwear.) It's lavender with white stripes. It's a pretty color but I already saw someone walking to school who had a similar sweater and I don't want to have an identity crisis.

I've been wondering about what to do for my Japan project. The subject is ikebana, otherwise known as flower-arranging. I am trying to decide what kind of ikebana I should do. Should I do an upright kind in a tall thin vase? (I have a vase like that except it's a Chinese vase and I would have to remove the bamboo already growing in there.) Or should I do a dog food dish for the vase? Or even this thing that looks like a very flat lampshade? Hmm.

This morning a lot of memories about when I was young came flooding back. When I was little, I wanted to play piano so I could play the song Fur Elise. Not a good goal since I soon reached that and became bored of piano. I would get upset if I couldn't play good, and cry and bang on the piano, or try to rip up my books. (This is why my belongings are so shabby.) Nowadays I realize I need to be more patient. I guess that means I'm maturing mentally.

Labels: 100, bad news, blog, childhood, homework, japan, neck, piano, running away, sweater, vase, youtube

One of the sites which I visit, Nutrinopets, seems to have a problem. Whenever I go there it says there is a problem with the database. I've gone away and come back, refreshed the page, etc. But all in vain. I guess I will wait until tomorrow to try again. Or maybe my IP address was banned? (Because someone was kicked off the website recently. If they got IP banned, if my IP is similar, I could've accidentally been banned? I have no idea at all.)

Anyhow...Today was a gloomy day. I woke up early in the morning (I don't know what time) and tried to get to sleep, but my thoughts and headache kept me awake, until at last I dragged myself out of bed around 9 am. I'm still tired even now.

At least I had a good lunch. We went to the Maru Ichi Ramen in Mountain View. I, as usual, ordered shoyu ramen, whereas my dad and mom ordered kuro ramen. (Kuro meaning black, so the soup is a color that leans towards black) And then I got some vanilla ice cream in a little paper cup, since my parents ordered the kids meal. (Which is fine, I guess, seeing as the ramen is still the same, just a smaller portion.) There was a room where a guy who worked there was supervising a machine which was churning out the noodle stuff. (It didn't look like noodles. Just a big sheet of...like dough?)

Later on my mom insisted on bringing me to a seminar. It was one of those that is meant to help you get into an Ivy League college. (I've been to two of these before, and they were kind of boring.) The guy who was talking is the Founder/CEO of something called the Ivy Review. (Is that what the suspicious building I saw in Cupertino was? It had an Ivy Review banner on it, but I thought it was just an advertisement.) Sometimes he spoke in Korean because some of the audience didn't know English.

Mr. Hull often asked people to raise their hands. For instance, he'd ask if you were in such-and-such grade, or if you took Algebra in 7th grade and Geometry in 8th grade, and so on. And he would tell some disturbing things. (Like he said it matters whether you sound optimistic or pessimistic in your application. If you sound too pessimistic they believe you are a "risk kid", one who might pour gasoline on themselves and light it up, or start a school shooting, if they get depressed by poor grades. I laughed, but he said to take him seriously, because it does happen.)

And he also said not to procrastinate on your personal statement (I'm not quite sure what that is. Is that the essay for your college app?). He said to start when you're a freshman, not four days away from the deadline. For instance, he was skiing over the vacation, and he got called by a frantic mother who said her son was having trouble with his personal statement. So Mr. Hull had to stop his vacation and try and improve the kid's college app. Mr. Hull says that kid had good grades, SAT score, # A-G lineup, and so forth (If you don't understand what I'm talking about...It's confusing) but he could've ruined it all by not starting his personal statement earlier.

By the way, you're supposed to write something compelling in your personal statement. Except nothing particularly extraordinary ever happened in my life...yet.

Labels: bad news, college, danger, error, lecture, lunch, personal statement, ramen, sleep

It's time to celebrate! I have no homework, not even math homework. (The only problem with that is that we don't have math homework due to the test...And I'm pretty sure I bombed the test. But it's okay to get moved back to grade-level math, I guess, but I would feel bad for not surviving two years in advanced.)

Eventually I need to find a way to promote my blog. And maybe even make my own website. The only problem is, I don't know what I would do with a website. I already have places to display my artwork and all that. I could maybe write a story or something, but I can always upload that to DeviantArt anyways. Argh! It makes me frustrated.

Yesterday I found I had an "official warning" on Nutrinopets. This was a big disgrace for me and also made me quite upset. This time the offense was reviving a dead topic (posting in a topic that has not been posted in recently) but I don't know which post it was that made me break the rules...I have sent a mail to the head moderator to ask, so all I can do now is sit back and wait.

On to a lighter note, tomorrow is one of my friends' birthdays. (Her name has the same first three letters as another one of my friends. Yikes.) My schedule is free for that, except I am running out of books to read and I need to find some time to go to the public library. D:

Labels: bad news, blog, homework, library

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